Saturday stormy rains in Mzimba have blown-off roof-tops for numerous houses in the area of Inkosi ya Makosi Mmbelwa including the Edingeni Community Day Secondary School.

Zodiak has been informed that a lot more other property has been destroyed in the area.

Chimwemwe Chisi, a teacher at  Edingeni CDSS, said among the damaged property are 21 computers, books in the library and other teaching and learning materials which were soaked in water.

Meanwhile, Faith Longwe, a  Relief and Rehabilitation Officer for the disaster office at the Mmbelwa district council, says the office will assess extent of the damage Monday or Tuesday to recommend action.

The Minister of Youth and Sports Ulemu Msungama has warned the contractor for the Neno Integrated Youth Centre, under the Job for Youth project against poor workmanship and corruption.

The minister said on Saturday his desire is to see actual designs on the ground so youth of Neno acquire entrepreneurial and technical skills as part of one million jobs creation agenda.

The Managing Director for Magalasi Construction Company, Room Gombwa, assured the minister of quality works and to include local communities in the workforce.

Journalists Association Against Aids has launched an initiative to lobby for the procurement of TB diagnosis equipment in district hospitals across the country.

JournalAids program manager, Dingani Mithi, said investigations showed that most district hospitals cannot diagnose TB at an early stage due to inadequate equipment.

Diagnosis of TB at an early stage is crucial to effective treatment.

Mulli Brothers Limited claims it has not been furnished with official communication on the termination of its contract to supply items for the Affordable Inputs Programme.

Managing Director of the company, Leston Mulli, told us today that the company will map the way forward on the matter once it gets official communication, but in the meantime will not stop preparing for the AIP.

Early this month, the government announced it had terminated the contract to a due to an alleged debt of K2.5bn which Mulli apparently owes the government.

The government does not say how the two issues are linked.

A court in Kasungu has ordered 15 game rangers and forestry guards to stay in remand for ten days to allow police conclude investigations into their case.

The 15 were arrested on charges of acts intended to cause grievous harm after they allegedly assaulted civilian women in a forest in that district.

The arrests followed a video clip that went viral in the social media depicting some game rangers and forestry guards forcing a helpless woman heavily whip another laying belly down.

The women had apparently been caught picking firewood in the protected forest.

It later transpired that this was in Chimaliro forest in Kasungu district and that more people than the two in the video had been subjected to the alleged assault.

Some of the game rangers and forestry guards were also allegedly wearing police uniform.

Senior resident magistrate, Biar Kamanga, has since adjourned the matter to October 12 for plea.

In a bid to help economically sustain lives of people with visual impairment, the Malawi Union of the Blind plans to provide livestock in Karonga for a pass-on program that should benefit over a hundred visually impaired people.

Malawi Union of the Blind Project Officer, Violet Baleti, says the idea comes from observing that people with virtual impairment are not incorporated in social protection programs which makes them continue living in abject poverty.

This came out in Karonga during a capacity building training on self-esteem and livestock management.

“What we are going to do now is secure livestock that will be given to these people and as the animals breed, they will be passed to the members.

“We believe this way the members will be helped to be independent economically,” says Baleti.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party National Director of Operations, Reverend Mwai Kamuyambeni says he has quit the position and the party with immediate effect.

But Kamuyambeni, a former legislator for Ntcheu West constituency, refused to discuss his next destination as a politician.

“I am thankful to President Peter Mutharika for giving me an opportunity to learn politics in the DPP.

“It is now time for me to move on and use what I have learnt to serve people of Malawi in another capacity.

“I shall be disclosing where I will be next in the next few days,” he said.

In the meantime, DPP spokesperson, Brown Mpinganjira says he does not immediately have a comment on the development as he was yet to see the official communication.

Since the loss Mutharika suffered at the June fresh presidential election, senior members of the party have been jumping ship to the opposition UTM, MCP and Aford.

This is coming at a time a leadership fight is emerging in the party with calls for an elective convention.

DPP vice president for the South Kondwani Nankhumwa and the party vice president for the centre, Uladi Mussa, are said to be the interested prospective party presidency contenders.

Inkosi ya Makhosi Gomani 5, the Ngoni leader in Ntcheu says child marriages are on the rise in his jurisdiction and he will re-engage traditional leaders under him to ensure that the vice is eliminated.

Gomani V, who is a World Vision ambassador on end child marriage campaign, told a chiefs’ council in Ntcheu yesterday the trend is worrisome.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that this is put to an end. That every child is in school not married.

“All traditional leaders here will need to know this and do something about it now not later,” says Inkosi Gomani the 5^th.

But Vice chairperson for Ntcheu Health Service Committee, Councilor Ezra Mike, says communities there are resisting efforts to end the vice.

“It is unfortunate that some communities are reacting this way,” says Mike.

It has emerged that the majority of young people and youths in Neno district are failing to access Youth Friendly Health Services due to Covid-19 restrictions and some cultural beliefs discouraging use of contraceptives among this age group.

Neno district Youth Friendly Health Services Coordinator, Antony Sandiyang'ane, said Tuesday there is a growing need for civic education in the area to stop the vice.

The antenatal register at Neno district hospital alone, shows that there have been over a thousand teen pregnancies since Covid-19 struck the district six months ago.

“These young people need urgent help. Their very lives are at stake,” Sandiyang'ane says.